Straw Dogs (1971) on Netflix
American mathematician David Sumner and his wife Amy move to a farmhouse near her Cornish village. Local men, including Amy's former boyfriend Charlie Venner, resent the outsider.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.4/1068,837 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
American applied mathematician David Sumner receives a research grant to study stellar structures and moves with his wife Amy to Trenchers Farm, an isolated house near Wakely, the Cornish village where Amy grew up. Charlie Venner, Amy's former boyfriend, and the locals Norman Scutt, Chris Cawsey and Phil Riddaway resent the outsider who has married one of their own. The Sumners hire Scutt and Cawsey to re-roof the garage, then add Venner and others when progress stalls. Tension grows in the marriage. Amy criticizes David's condescension and suggests he left an American campus out of cowardice. David buries himself in his work, ignoring the locals' hostility and Amy's unhappiness. Amy's pranks and provocative manner toward the workmen, especially Venner, draw attention as the men's resentment keeps building.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Straw Dogs (1971)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Susan George won the role of Amy after Judy Geeson, Jacqueline Bisset, Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Carol White, Charlotte Rampling and Hayley Mills were considered. Dustin Hoffman objected that his character would never marry such a "Lolita-ish" girl, but Sam Peckinpah insisted on George, then little known in the U.S.
- In March 1999 a partially edited print of Straw Dogs with most of the second rape removed was refused a UK video certificate, and the full uncut version was rejected three months later. The film was finally released unedited on VHS and DVD on 1 July 2002.
- Sam Peckinpah's connection with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts ended after The Ballad of Cable Hogue wrapped 19 days over schedule and $3 million over budget, leaving him so few directing jobs that he had to travel to England to make Straw Dogs.
- Sam Peckinpah called Gordon M. Williams's novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm "this rotten book" and said that he and screenwriter David Zelag Goodman kept only the siege from it.
- Before Dustin Hoffman was cast as the American mathematician David Sumner, Beau Bridges, Stacy Keach, Sidney Poitier, Jack Nicholson and Donald Sutherland were considered for the lead role.
- The studio edited the first rape scene before Straw Dogs opened in the United States, to earn an R rating from the MPAA.
- Home Alone production designer John Muto called that film a "kids version of Straw Dogs", and director Jacques Audiard cited Straw Dogs as the basis for his 2015 film Dheepan.
